We are having a very small ceremony at a restaurant with a meal. We need to keep it very small due to our budget. We considered having a very private ceremony only, but would like to include some friends.
Part of the reason it has to be a little bigger than private is that inviting only immediate family and their families equals 39 people (including kids). I wish I knew what these people were going to do. Let's say our ceiling is 50 people...I would hate to limit our list to only our 11 closest friends and then have some in my family not come. If my sister doesn't come, that would be 6 people, room for 3 couples, for example. I could potentially see 3 families not coming, if they didn't this would be 12 people.
I know everyone here is very against B-listing, and I understand. But I really wish I could figure out what was going on with my family before we decided how many friends to invite. I HATE having to cut my friends list down so severely. We're talking about 11 total friends between myself and my FI, and I hate it.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Do I really just have to suck it up and make the painful cuts to the friends list and invite everybody at once? I don't want to offend anybody by asking later than my family I guess, but I'm worried I'll invite 50 and 38 will show up.
Thanks for the help.